Respect Is Supposed To Go Both Ways
Sarkozy was slated to visit Saudi Arabia on Sunday, and a Saudi official called on Sarko to leave his foxy girlfriend home out of "respect" for their culture.

Amazing how respect for culture goes one way; as in, when's the last time you heard a Muslim leader calling on Muslims to respect westerners or western culture -- for starters, in the most fundamental way, by not blowing westerners up?

And then, there are all the Muslim cabbies in Minneapolis, licensed by the city, who won't carry people with dogs -- not even blind people with Seeing Eye dogs -- or passengers with bottles of alcohol.

And then there's the pandering to Muslims with a bill in the U.S. Senate to serve Halal food in schools in New York City.

And how about how taxpayer dollars going to building Muslim footbaths at the University of Michigan?

And don't forget trying out a little slave-rape -- which doesn't go over quite as well in America as in does back in Islamic lands.

While we're on the issue of respect, how about you Saudis respect our culture, and our separation of church (and mosque) and state, and especially, our right to keep on living -- and if you can't deal, stay in that backward, sharia-ruled land of yours that so much better suits your needs.

Personally, I'd rather see CarlaBruni any day than one of the Saudi women in their head-to-toe tents, wishing they could drive and have rights beyond that of a dog.

Hey, Saudis...maybe you should respect your own culture a little less, huh?

Comments

What I really hate is the way the west is seemingly so self loathing, that it is willing to pander to these sorts of laws. "well we wouldn't want them to feel bad about themselves, now would we?"

It's an interesting concept if they reciprocate in some way...

Correct if I'm wrong on this, but I believe the main difference between Judeo-Christian and Islam, is that J/C holds itself to a biblical standard, but it is written in the Bible that the laws of men are also to be obeyed. I am thinking that the Koran is written such that it is required to supercede all other law. I could be wrong on the nuance of that, but I have heard that translating it is also quite a feat...

SwissArmyD
at January 14, 2008 4:54 AM

I read that the Koran IS the law in Saudi Arabia and Iran. Nutbags. Word of The Enlightenment doesn't seem to have hit the Muslim countries. Perhaps explains all those scientific discoveries Muslims have made in the past 100 years. Can anybody name, let's be generous here...even five? (We'll allow for those few Muslims who may have headed over to our shores to take advantage of our values and our education systems.)

The footbath thing makes a little bit of sense to me at least. But then I have an irrational fear of 'foot germs' so the idea of using a sink after someone's washed their feet in it grosses me out in a big way. *I* would be willing to pay in for a device to keep people's feet out of the sink, but it's an irrational germ issue. Not a 'religious rights' one.

That being said, I hope that the guy with the sex slave drops the soap while he's in prison.

Elle
at January 14, 2008 7:55 AM

The footbath thing is also a safety issue - apparently they get the floors quite wet when using the sinks.

justin case
at January 14, 2008 8:25 AM

The link about footbaths is frightening. What's next, burka's with embroidered university letters? The universities must be scared. If students are damaging property (the sinks), how are they not responsible for the repair? How is it that the only ones using the footbaths are not paying for the installation? What is frightening to me is how the university justifies it. In Dearborn, they called the footbaths a health and safety measure, not a religious decision, and it argued that while the footbaths may benefit Muslim students, they will be available to others who want to wash their feet. Safety measure is accurate, in the sense that they avoid having sh!t blow up because "the university" made them disgrace Allah for not having clean feet.

I personally enjoy burning a few crosses before I start my day. Nothing religious, it just helps me focus and clears my mind. Can I get a fire pit installed, pretty please? But - anyone can make use of it...

kbling
at January 14, 2008 9:29 AM

"while the footbaths may benefit Muslim students, they will be available to others who want to wash their feet."

If I was a university student and this bothered me, I would probably get a group of friends together and line up at the footbaths. The modern day equivalent of a sit-in.

Steamer
at January 14, 2008 11:24 AM

Query: do they serve kosher food in the NYC cafeterias? If so, I suggest we all settle down. Even if they don't, BFD. The problem isn't with serving halal food. The problem only arises if someone demands that _everyone_ eat halal food.

As for the footbath thing...that's at UM-Dearborn, and Dearborn is supposedly the largest Muslim community in the Western Hemisphere. And it's not like the infidels couldn't use the footbaths if they wanted...again, the problem only arises if someone demands that _everyone_ wash their feet, or that men and women attend separate classes, or that women not be allowed to matriculate, or something.

On the other hand, the Minneapolis cabbie thing is inexcusable, and the slave rape is currently in jail, where hopefully he's learning about a different type of rape.

Why would a public school serve food under religious regulations? I looked that up now, and see no evidence of it in the New York public schools. Kids who are made to keep kosher probably bring their own food or go to religious educational facilities.

And sorry, saying footbaths could be used by non Muslims is like providing taxpayer funded tampons and saying men could, I guess, shove them up their asses if they so desired.

The irony is that during the Middle Ages, the Muslims were brilliant scientists, and the Christians were the ones, well, stuck in the Middle Ages. In a quick search to answer Amy's question and to satisfy my own curiosity as well, this is all I found: http://www.maasindia.org/ Which is not so much.

Amy
at January 14, 2008 12:35 PM

Regarding the Minneapolis cabbie thing, the last I heard drivers who refuse service to customers possessing alcohol will have their licenses suspended:

However, I take public transport to and from the airport, so I don't know how this has affected service.

stephanie
at January 14, 2008 12:37 PM

Islam is scary.

On the foot bath thing... Why weren't the students washing their feet in their dorm bathtub/shower? Feet in a sink that other people have to use is really gross.

On the rest of it... Islam is by nature an extremely intolerant religion. Even its name means "submit". It shows in the behavior of the people. The slave-rape case is horrible and shocking, but not surprising.

Bad Kitty
at January 14, 2008 12:38 PM

On the foot bath thing... Why weren't the students washing their feet in their dorm bathtub/shower? Feet in a sink that other people have to use is really gross.

UM-Dearborn is mostly a commuter school...i.e. most students don't live in dorms.

Speedy

Speedy
at January 14, 2008 1:42 PM

Why would a public school serve food under religious regulations? I looked that up now, and see no evidence of it in the New York public schools.

Possibly it's an unofficial thing...I went to public schools in a heavily Catholic area and they always seemed to serve fish on Lenten Fridays.

In any case, if the school district can't afford or just decides not to serve halal food, that's fine too-- it's just if it makes some portion of the student body happy, provided everything is strictly voluntary there's no reason to get upset.

Unlike the cabbie thing, where one religious group is trying to deny a public service in order to force another group to comply with its religious beliefs.

Speedy

Speedy
at January 14, 2008 1:48 PM

Sorry about the link Amy... The trick is to let the site bomb out with a 403 error, put the cursor in your URL window, and then tap enter again. That works here anyway, with Opera and IE.

Out of respect for my feminist San Francisco culture, I hope the Islamists will respect my right to wear my new T-shirt with my favorite Danish cartoon printed on it. It's the cartoon with Mohammed standing in front of Heaven to turn away a line of suicide bombers because "We have totally run out of virgins".